


I Do

by ryoku



Category: Pandora Hearts
Genre: Domestic, M/M, Modern Setting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-21 21:09:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13152096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryoku/pseuds/ryoku
Summary: By the time Elliot's shift at the library was over at 6, the snow drifts were up to his knees. Being one of the only young men on the staff, meant that he was socially obligated to volunteer to shovel the snow out of the entry way. So when he was schedule to leave, his back was killing him. Stupid cold weather. Leo had been right (Leo was usually right, but Elliot made it a point to never let him know that), he should have just called in today.





	I Do

**Author's Note:**

> This is a gift for Issy for the Pandora Hearts Secret Santa 2017. I'm sorry I'm getting it to you at the very last minute, but I hope you like it! Please let me know your ao3 handle, and I'll make sure to gift this to you properly! Merry Christmas!

By the time Elliot's shift at the library was over at 6, the snow drifts were up to his knees. Being one of the only young men on the staff, meant that he was socially obligated to volunteer to shovel the snow out of the entry way. So when he was schedule to leave, his back was killing him. Stupid cold weather. Leo had been right (Leo was usually right, but Elliot made it a point to never let him know that), he should have just called in today. But if he'd done that, the girls probably would have had to do the shoveling, and he was too much of a damn gentleman to just ignore that. Stupid archaic societal institutions. 

That's why he was surprised when he walked out of the library, in a crummy mood and expecting that the buses would be running late, if they ran at all, only to be startled by the honking of a car. Elliot looked up, and scowled, but it probably lacked the bite that it should have. 

He did not run - because knowing his luck he would have slipped on the ice, and then his back would really hurt - but he did rush over to the sleek black car, and let himself into the passenger side. 

“You could have text me.” Elliot grumbled, secretly pleased at how warm the running car was. 

Leo did that little huffing sound that was cute but annoying at the same time. “I like honking at you.” Leo leveled him a look that was mock serious at best. “I do worry I'm forming a habit though. Don't go jumping into any strange cars that honks at you.” 

“Asshole,” Elliot muttered, pulling off his gloves and wiggling his fingers in front of the vent. The warm air almost hurt, but it was a good kind of hurt. And heated seats. God, heated seats. His butt was already starting to practically melt. 

“Besides,” Leo said, obnoxiously pulling out of the library's parking lot. “I need you for the heavy lifting. I went shopping.” 

“Can you at least try to drive like a civilized human being?” Elliot asked, reaching out for the hand hold above his head. He then angled himself to look at the back seat, and gawked. “Did you buy out a bookstore!?” There were piles and piles of books: old, new, modern, archaic, things that looked like text books and obnoxiously risque harlequin books with scantly clad perfectly sculpted figures on their covers. 

Elliot looked over at Leo just in time to see him shrug. “I'm insatiable.” Leo gave him a lewd look, “but you know that.” Then his eyes were back on the road, and he swerved around another car obnoxiously. Elliot, used to that by this point, still had his hand on the hold above him, and was just glad that Leo didn't yell at the other driver for being too slow. “Besides, it makes you feel important to build me more book cases. I'm only looking out for your well being.” 

“You are going to die of lung cancer-” Leo swerved again. “if you don't kill us first. Hey, slow down! The streets are icy!” 

“I am going to live another 200 hundred years,” Leo said dismissively, “or so says my horoscope.” He did slow down a little though. Not much, but at least it was better then nothing.

Elliot looked over at him with narrowed eyes. “It did not say that.” 

Leo smiled, and it was that secretive, playful thing that made Elliot's stomach tumble. He looked at the road in front of them. If Leo caught him blushing, they'd have to talk about that, and he'd rather not. 

“Why lung cancer, by the way?” Leo asked. “Not that I find you contemplating my demise at all peculiar.” 

He'd have to remember to put anti-freeze in the car when they got back. Leo always forgot, and then called him up annoyed that the car wouldn't start. It was amazing how he could be so meticulous about some things, and an absolute space cadet about others. Elliot had a suspicion that he actually forgot on purpose, so he'd have an excuse to call. “There was an e-mail going round about how old paper particles can get in your lungs and cause cancer. Effects a lot of archivists, I guess. There were even sources.” 

“Did you check the sources?” Leo asked, amusement in his voice. 

“I spent most of my day shoveling snow, and my back is having a midlife crisis.” He was going to have to heat up the rice pack when they got home. God he felt old, he had no idea how Leo always managed to seem ageless. “No, I did not check the sources. Lisa told me about it.”

“What kind of a librarian are you?”

“The kind that gets forced into manual labo- curb!” 

Leo didn't miss the curb in question. In fact, he seemed to take the warning as a challenge, and Elliot's butt was remiss in being parted from the heated seats for even the few seconds that he was airborne. 

When he was safely in the seat once more (or as relatively safely as could be with Leo behind the wheel) Elliot switched hands, so that he could hold on with the left, and put his right in front of the heated vent. 

“You like it,” Leo said. Elliot wasn't a hundred percent sure if he meant the bad driving, or the manual labor, but he had a feeling Leo might have meant both, or something entirely different. “Shouldn't they have had someone from the city shoveling the snow?” 

“They're working on the roads.” Elliot said, secretly grateful. People like Leo existed, and ice was never a good addition to that mix. “Libraries aren't a huge priority, especially on the last day before Christmas break.” 

“Well, good thing you've got a whole week to let that back rest before you'll be shoveling snow again.” The smile on Leo's face seemed almost fake, but it was hard to tell sometimes. It was the same look Leo got whenever something he didn't like came up.

Elliot sidelined him with a glare. “I hate you.” 

Leo shrugged. “I don't seem to mind.” 

They fell off into silence. Elliot was just glad that Leo had at least slowed down a little. Not too much though, as he watched Leo pass a car as if it was standing still. As he moved his head to watch the car disappear, he happened to catch a glance at the back seat. It was sort of amazing that none of the books had gone tumbling over each other during the drive. “Seriously, did you need to buy out a small book store?” 

“Estate sale,” Leo said in lieu of an actual answer. “I just took the lot.” 

“What if you already have some of these?” Elliot said, more just to fill the space then to actually protest. If nothing else, Leo probably got them cheap, and he had a hard time begrudging him that. It's wasn't like Leo lacked space to put all those things at least. Elliot preferred to just keep a few important things than to hoard everything he could get his hands on, but he could understand it a little bit in Leo's case. Elliot knew Leo had a compulsion to hold onto everything he could, for as long as he could. It made sense, in a sad sort of way, and books lasted a long time as long as you took care of them. 

“Then I'll just give them to you for Christmas.” Leo said, his voice sing song.

Elliot huffed. “You had better not.” He didn't need more junk. Leo gave him stuff he didn't need all the time, and then got offended when Elliot wanted to get rid of them. It was annoying.

Leo shrugged one shoulder.“Nah, I won't. I'll carry them in too.” Elliot eyed him suspiciously. “Really, I will. I'm locking you out of the house library. Wouldn't want you getting cancer.” He couldn't tell if Leo was being serious. With these sorts of things, it could always go either way. 

“Leo, I'm a librarian.” 

“Which is why we should keep you away from books when you aren't working.” Leo stated, without skipping a beat. “The e-reader works better for you anyway. And you should take more days off. Once a week would be fine at first, and once they're used to that, we'll start upping it to two or three.” 

Elliot let go of the hand hold above his head, and stuck his hands under his thighs, so that the heated seats would warm them up.“You're joking.” It was more of a statement then a question, and a borderline warning. 

“I'm joking.” Leo answered too quickly. 

Elliot paused, glaring at Leo for all he was worth, but Leo wasn't looking at him. He kept his eyes steadfast on the road. Elliot looked away, back outside at the snow drifts on the side of the road. He pulled his hands out from under his thighs, and propped his elbow on the car door. He tapped idly on his leg with the other hand. His back still hurt like a bitch when he shifted the wrong way.

They were getting closer to the house, so there were less cars and people. Leo's old house was well outside of the city limits, but growth kept edging closer to them. Just a few years ago they'd gotten a movie theater closer to the house, and Leo had been both excited for easier movie dates, and upset because society kept getting closer and closer to their little hideaway. “You weren't joking.” Elliot said, knowing the answer already.

“I wasn't joking.” Leo swallowed, and Elliot watched the bob of his neck. “I know, we've talked about this-” Many times, “-but you can't blame me for being concerned. Humans-”

“-are fragile,” Elliot finished for him. He waved one hand in exasperation. “I've heard this bullshit a million times Leo.” Elliot didn't want to look at him, cause Leo would have that little distressed look on his face, the one where his lips were starting to splinter into different places. Against his better judgment, Elliot looked, and there it was, in all it's sad, despondent glory. It always made him want to apologize, but Elliot didn't dare say it. He didn't have anything to apologize for. Leo wasn't even looking at him. His eyes were completely on the road, though he'd driven this route for so many years that Elliot had seen him do it practically asleep. Elliot went for something lighter, in lieu of that apology he was fighting down. “Just because I'm not some thousand year old Time Lord doesn't-” 

“-I'm not a Time Lord,” Leo pouted.

“-mean you get to treat me like some piece of porcelain, or lock me up.” Elliot was going for playful chiding, but it probably came out harsher than he'd like. It usually did. Elliot always felt like he had a million edges, that tore at anyone within close vicinity. 

“I don't lock you up,” Leo said, the statement soft and rueful. Elliot hadn't meant to be mean by saying it, but the fact that Leo was taking offense was probably telling in its own right. 

He eyed Leo critically for a few moments. “You'd like to,” he said. The engine of the car roared beneath them, as Leo took a rather aggressive turn. His back flared up at the sudden jerking movement, but Elliot didn't dare say anything. He tried not to wince, and ran a hand through his hair instead. It didn't look like Leo had noticed, which was probably better. 

“So what?” Leo said, his temper obviously starting to sizzle. Elliot could already hear his teeth gritting. That kind of grinding probably stayed, sort of like how the hand had never grown back. “I don't, that's what matters.” Leo bit out.

He should have let it go, but Elliot couldn't just leave well enough alone. “Instead you treat me like a house cat that you occasionally let outside.” Leo was usually the calm one in the relationship, but they both had explosive tempers in the right circumstances. Elliot's moods had tempered some as he'd gotten older, but even still he rarely backed down from a fight.

“Can we not do this?” Leo gave him a quick sideways look that was unmistakably hurt, before looking back at the road. “I thought I was being nice coming to pick you up, not a meddling Time Lord.” Leo said. His grip on the steering wheel looked like it would dent, or that he'd snap it into pieces. That was another thing they just didn't talk about, how Leo was so much stronger than he had any right to be. Just one more thing that came with the other host of strangeness that was part of the package deal.

They both fell into an awkward silence. Elliot made a point to look out the window to his side, watching as the city gave way to trees heavy with snow. The road was becoming more of a hazard, because the plows obviously hadn't been out here yet. The bus probably wasn't running either, now that Elliot thought of it. He probably would have had to walk all the way in the snow, and his back would have been in absolute agony by the time he got home. Leo really was being nice in picking him up, but admitting that wasn't going to happen. “Making me watch that show was the absolute worse way to come out of the cosmic closet,” is what Elliot said instead. It was something of a peace offering, but not much. 

Leo did that little huff. The one that Elliot secretly loved. His eyes always sparkled a certain way when he did it. “I can actually guarantee you 100% that it really wasn't.” 

Elliot snorted. “As always, I'm sure there's a story to that.” 

He expected them to move on from there. For Leo to tell an outlandish story about having to reveal himself as some immortal lord of order or something, and he inevitable hilarity that ensued, but they didn't. Leo sat quietly, his eyes distant every time Elliot dared to look over at him.

“Sometimes, I wonder if I should have left you as a chain.” Elliot's breath caught, but he played it off as nothing. This was something they didn't talk about. They'd had a conversation once, after the dreams had started. Leo had answered every question he had, but after that, it was unsaid that it should never come up again. Too much about that hurt. There were holes in Elliot's memory, and he was almost happy to leave them that way. It hurt Leo to talk about it, tore things open that should have been long mended. “I could have contracted you,” Leo added softly. “We would've been together without any of this-” Leo scrunched up his lips into something jagged and sad- “messy human business.” 

Elliot still wasn't exactly sure what that would have entailed, or even if it really would have been him, but there were easier ways to argue against that. “I would have been a servant,” Elliot said simply. 

Their relationship wasn't an even one, he wasn't stupid enough to think it was, but it wasn't that bad either. He couldn't imagine having to make that kind of choice, and he almost resented that Leo had made it on his own. Not that it was a completely rational thought, being the physical manifestation of the order of the abyss sort of entailed some rough decisions, from what Elliot had gathered.

“I was your servant once.” The statement sounded like a keepsake Leo had desperately clung to for years, gluing it back together every time it got cracked.

Elliot really didn't know what to think about that. He kept his mind occupied with his life, normal and mundane as it was. Leo's cosmic responsibilities and innumerable griefs would eat him alive if he let them. They were probably going to regardless of what he did, so there wasn't much use in worrying to much about it. “So you've told me,” he answered. Not really knowing what else to say. “Leo, I get that there are things I'm never going to understand. I can't imagine how lonely it's been for you, but you giving me this life doesn't mean you have the right to chain me down.” 

“I've never chained you down.” Leo denied.

“You'd like to.” Elliot said, hoping that Leo would disagree with him. 

“No, I don't think I could.” He answered, a little smile on his face. “You're too pig headed for that sort of thing, even if I wanted to.” Those shimmering eyes were on him for just a few moments, that smile more assuring that it should have been. Then his eyes were back on the road, his face much lighter. “Maybe I'll lock you up in a tower though. There's even a precedent for that.” The teasing in Leo's tone was a welcome relief.

Elliot rolled his eyes, secretly happy that whatever melt down they'd been approaching had been deserted. It was one thing when he got angry, but a completely different one when Leo got upset. “You're impossible.” 

Leo shrugged a shoulder. “You put up with me anyway.” 

“Yeah,” Elliot agreed without a second thought. “I do.”


End file.
